Friday, 22 July 2011

Facebook promotion for your small business

I'm not claiming to be an expert on this, but I posted a status about the following, and it seemed to be well received advice. It turns out Facebook have changed the way they'd like small businesses and companies to interact with their fans and customers, but haven't made this obvious.

There are three main ways to interact with customers on Facebook, and as I'm often asked which is the best way to go, here are the pros and cons of each. If there are terms you don't understand, I've explained them at the end in a glossary to avoid patronising those that know, and alienating those that don't.

N.B. I'm going to be using Joined at the Print, a pop-up shop in Leeds, as an example in this article. This is only because they have a group, a place and a profile, and as a pop-up shop they are no longer open, so it felt the fairest way to use examples without using someone who is currently still trading.

1.Having a 'business' profile

Making a profile for your business might seem like a good idea, and sometimes it certainly is. If you are a singular performer, e.g. a burlesque dancer, solo-ist, artist or similar, then it can certainly make sense to have profile similar to your personal profile, but just with your business name.

What isn't a good idea, in my opinion, is having a profile named after your business. For an example, there is a profile named Joinedattheprint Leeds.

PROS

People can easily 'tag' you, in both photos and updates – tagging in updates and comments is an interesting development on Facebook. If you tag someone, then anyone reading the comment can easily click the tag and see who or what you are talking about.

If someone interacts with you, you always get a notification of some kind.

You can easily get messages sent to you – there is a clear message button on the right hand side.

You appear in people's news feed.

It's easy for people to see where your photos are stored (on the left hand side, there is a link labelled 'Photos')

CONS

You can only tag people who you are friends with – if you want to tag someone who hasn't accepted your friend request, you can't tag them.

You need a different email address.

The profile might get deleted by Facebook when they realise you are not a real person.

You cannot advertise yourself on Facebook or update fans en mass.

Fans cannot come along and just casually 'like' you – they have to request friendship, which might take time for you to accept, and they may just get bored waiting.

Profiles have a cap – this means you can only be friends with a limited amount of people.

SOLUTION

Don't have a business profile if you can help it - I do have a business profile, but I use it merely to interact with people I don't know very well. I don't use it to promote my business. It's also helpful as I can have both my personal profile and business profile as admins on pages, which is priceless when a fanpage is deleted (more on this later).

2. Having a group

Groups on Facebook have changed almost beyond recognition. They are, to be blunt, a pain in the backside. Old groups did not look much different to profiles, but now they have made it so you have little to no interaction with your fans and customers. For example of what the new group looks like, go to the Joined at the Print group.

PROS

I honestly couldn't find one

CONS

There is no 'like' button at the top of the page.

People have to request to join it, even if it's an 'open' group. This makes fans and customers feel uncomfortable. The only time this isn't an issue is if you're selling some sort of adult item, such as lingerie, sex toys, fetish wear, in which case people will be glad of the perceived anonymity.

When you set a group it, it asks who you would like to add to the group. You might think this will email a recommendation to your friends – it doesn't, it adds them to the group immediately, without asking them if they want to be a member. On my business profile, I keep getting added to groups, and even when it's something I'm interested in, it really annoys me! I like to choose what I want to be a part of.

You won't appear in people's news feeds.

You won't always receive an email notification. The only notification you'll get is either at the top of Facebook, where you can see in the picture it says '6', or on the left hand side, where you can see next to 'Birds Yard – Sho...' it says '3'. You can change this setting so you receive an email when someone posts in the group, but as it seems the default setting is for not to receive an email, and you want customers to see what YOU are writing, not the other way round, this doesn't really help.

You cannot 'tag' a group – this is probably the biggest issue. There are a few people inside Bird's Yard, and we have a combination of groups, pages and profiles between us. If I want to tag someone's business, and they only have a group, I can't, meaning I can't advertise for them. If I take a photo, and they only have a group, I can't tag their business in the photo, and if someone was looking and thought they liked that item, they would have to ask where it was from, instead of just following the 'tag'.

You cannot connect a group to a place, so people cannot 'check into' your business.

SOLUTION

Use groups merely for talking to friends and colleagues. We have a Bird's Yard group where all the shop owners can chat about stuff, and this is what groups are tailor made for, in my opinion. I also have one for research (in the picture you can see it – 'LBC Research Group').

3.Having a 'page'

These used to be 'fanpages' but now are so much more. They're like a profile, as they have photos, status updates, and can be tagged, but have the added advantage of having 'fans' rather than friends.

For an example, here once again is Joined at the Print. This page has not had much done to it, as it was set-up almost by accident by myself just as the shop was closing!

As you can see above, a page looks a lot like a profile. To see it like this, you have to click on 'like'. It's quick and easy to interact with the page, but also quick and easy to stop interacting (you can simply click on 'unlike' at the bottom left. It's definitely more of a choice whether you want to 'like' the page, and 'liking' something is a lot more customer friendly than requesting friendship, or asking to join.

You should get email notifications – at first I didn't, but then realised this was because they were all in my spam folder. If you don't get email notifications, you can click on 'notifications' on the right hand side, and easily see who has interacted with your page.

It's easy to see where photos and information are – they are all on the left hand side underneath the profile picture.

As well as the usual photos, you can also add many other Facebook apps. If you sell stuff, there are links to add your ebay, etsy and folksy shops, which means you can direct customers easily so they can make purchases.

You can create events – and then update all your fans about it at once. Much better than inviting all your friends individually!

One of my favourite things is 'Use Facebook as page' – on my page you can see it there on the right hand side below 'admins'. Clicking on this means you become your business – it's hard to describe what I mean without you doing it, but it basically means your business page becomes like a business profile. Anything you 'like' or comment on, you do so as your business. This is fantastic if you don't want people to know about your profile, as you don't need to disclose who you really are.

You can connect your page to a place – then when people check-in, they do so at your business, and everything is easily together in one place.

You appear in news feeds, can be tagged in comments, updates and (usually) photos.

There is no 'cap' on how many people can like you.

CONS

If your profile is deleted, and you only have one admin, then your page is also deleted. Harsh isn't it? This is why it's a good idea to have two admins (as you can see on my page).

It's hard to get messages sent to you without disclosing who you really are. There is an app to create a 'contact form' on your page, but as there are only so many apps visible (you can see the others by clicking 'more', but customers tend to be lazy!) I like to have the most important ones at the top.

SOLUTION

Get a page. Seriously. In my opinion, it's the only way that makes sense.

'App' - (in this case) small piece of programming that Facebook allows you to add to your page which gives little links for customers to follow.

'Check-in' – a new feature available on Smartphones. Basically, opening Facebook on a Smartphone utilises the GPS, and allows you to say where you are. It's quite a good way of getting new customers, as when people go to 'check-in' they can see what's nearby, so if you have a 'place' on Facebook, you might just find people pop-in after seeing they are near you.

'Friends' – you can request friendship with other profiles on Facebook. If they do not accept your friendship, it just means you can't really interact with them.

'Group' – old style groups looked very similar to pages, new style groups appear on the left of your homepage. They are either 'open', 'closed', or 'secret' and are really best used as a way to communicate with colleagues and friends.

'Like' – A small link underneath comments and updates. Clicking on this link does a few things. It means you will received notifications of all comments which appear, but it also means that you have 'interacted; with this, and boosts it up the news feed.
This can also refer to a box at the top of a Facebook 'page'. Clicking like on a page means you get to see all content on that page, as well as being able to tag the page in comments and status updates.

'News feed' – clicking on 'home' shows your news feed, which has various settings. The best setting to have is 'Most recent' or 'Top news'. Most recent literally shows them in chronological order, and Top news shows the updates which have been most interacted with.

'Notification' – this is an email sent to tell you someone has interacted with you on Facebook. It could be that someone has commented after you or on an update you 'liked', they have posted in a group you are a member of, or they have sent a message, etc.
This could also refer to the notifications link on the right hand side of a 'page' belonging to you.

'Page' – these used to be called 'Fanpages' and are what people 'Like' on Facebook. It looks almost exactly like a personal profile.

'Place' – these are what people use to 'check-in' at on Smartphones. They are basically a 'page' with an address.

'Profile' – this is probably what you already have on Facebook – a page named after you, with photos of you, where you interact with friends.

'Tag' – if you type @ on Facebook in a status update or comment, you can then choose to 'tag' people on your friend list. For example, if someone wanted to tag me, they'd type '@p', and all their friends whose names being with P would then appear. Simply clicking on the correct name inserts the 'tag' into whatever you're writing.
It can also refer to tagging someone in a photograph.

1 comment:

This is interesting Chloe. I personally think that creating a 'personal' page as a business, or 'business profile' is the term here has one other MAJOR con - I think it's totally unethical. I did create one for Indie Cindy but I have logged in like once, and I am going to delete it. There's a reason Facebook doesn't like you to set them up and it's because of privacy control.

I'm a hardened Facebook user, as you know, and have settings for business pages that I add them to so that they cannot see anything at all on my profile or photos. However, not everyone knows or can be bothered to do this. A person who sets up a business profile page effectively has access to a lot of people's personal info and photos that the 'friends' don't realise, and that's why I don't agree with it...